We live in a data rich era; data is no longer a scarce resource. For some data is the new oil, driving performance improvements and the ignition of new business models. Many times Big Data is positioned as the answer to everything. It is the end of theory as former Wired editor Chris Anderson wants us to belief. This growing size of data poses new challenges to our field of expertise, as with data also the size of the optimization problems grows to unprecedented sizes. Machine learning, compressed sensing, social network science and computational biology are some of many prominent application domains where it is easy to formulate optimization problems with millions or billions of variables. The available solution strategies and algorithms within Operations Research are not designed to scale to instances of this size; new approaches are needed.

During the upcoming LNMB/NGB seminar CPLEX and Gurobi founder Robert Bixby will share his thoughts on the challenges Big Data causes Operations Research, and discuss both the myths and the truths. During the seminar you will learn about the latest developments in data visualization, the starting point of any analysis. And how new developments in big data optimisation can be used to solve the ever growing size of optimization problems. The details of the program will follow in the next few weeks. So, keep a close watch on our site for further details or you can already register on

The conference language is English. Registration is possible via the Seminar On-line Registration Form. The conference fee is 100 Euro for LNMB and NGB members, and 150 Euro for others. The conference fee covers lunch, coffee, tea, and the drinks.

Thursday January 15, 2015 NGB/LNMB Seminar "Back to school, learn about the latest developments in Operations Research" Topic: Operations Research in a Big Data age (Data Visualization and Big Data Optimisation); more details on this seminar will follow soon
09.30 - 10.00	Registration and coffee
10.00 - 10.05	Welcome by the chair of the NGB Albert Wagelmans (EUR)
10.05 - 10.30	Introduction to the topic by the day-chair Robert Bixby (Gurobi Optimization) Abstract of the Introduction PDF-file of the introduction
10.30 - 11.15	Tutorial "Constructing Maps to Visualize Big Data - Part I" Speaker: Laurens van der Maaten (TU Delft) Abstract of Part I + II of the Presentation PDF-file of both parts of the Presentation
11.15 - 11.30	Coffee/tea
11.30 - 12.00	Tutorial "Constructing Maps to Visualize Big Data - Part II", Speaker: Laurens van der Maaten (TU Delft) Abstract of Part I + II of the Presentation
12.00 - 12.45	Application of "Data Visualization" Speaker: Danny Holten (SynerScope) Abstract of the Presentation PDF-file of the Presentation Link to a video of the Enron analysis (see last slide presentation)
12.45 - 14.00	Lunch
14.00 - 14.45	Tutorial "Big Data Optimization - Part I" Speaker: Jean-Francois Puget (IBM) Abstract of the Presentation PDF-file of both parts of the Presentation
14.45 - 15.00	Coffee/tea
15.00 - 15.45	Tutorial "Big Data Optimization - Part II" Jean-Francois Puget (IBM) Abstract of the Presentation PDF-file of both parts of the Presentation
15.45 - 16.30	Applying Mathematical Optimization to Germany's Largest Gas Transport Network Speaker: Björn Geißler (Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg) Abstract of the Presentation PDF-file of the Presentation
16.30 - 16.45	Closing
16.45 - 17.30	Drinks

The seminar is the 16th annual seminar, following the previous successful seminars:
E-Commerce & Operations Research (2001)
Capacity Management - How Operations Research models support decision makers (2002)
New developments in Operations Research software (2003)
On-line methods: Challenges for OR in a real-time world (2004)
Mathematical Models for Financial Optimization (2005)
Operations Research and Health Care (2006)
Operations Research and Public Transportation (2007)
Operations Research and Energy (2008)
Operations Research and Traffic (2009)
Operations Research and Health Care (2010)
Operations Research in Supply Chain Management and Marketing (2011)
Operations Research in Supply Chain Management and Humanitarian Aid (2012)
Back to school: Robust Optimization and Mixed Integer Nonlinear Programming (2013)
Back to school: Constraint Programming and Multi Objective Optimisation (2014)